The past 18 months have been a barrage of racist, anonymous letters, “toxic politics” and efforts to ruin his reputation, Spencer-East Brookfield School Superintendent Reza Namin said this week.

Now, Mr. Namin, who is on a leave of absence that he said will allow him time to move to Massachusetts from Maine, will start attending selectmen's meetings in Spencer and East Brookfield so that residents who have questions can meet him there.

“I'm banned from school property,” Mr. Namin said, referring to a letter from School Committee Chairman Mary Gershman.

The letter is dated Dec. 18, seven days after Mr. Namin requested a personal leave during a lengthy executive session with committee members.

The letter indicates that Mr. Namin's leave was granted, and “During the period of your leave, you are not to be on School District property and not to contact any employee of the School District” without the acting superintendent's permission.

Mrs. Gershman declined to comment on the letter.

Mr. Namin said he still has dozens of personal items in his school office, including photographs, his framed degrees and a desk, that he has been unable to retrieve. He was locked out of his district email account, and his name and photographs were removed from the school's website.

Among those personal items are letters in which he was referred to as a “camel rider,” a statement he said is racist and refers to his Iranian heritage. He said even though he became a U.S. citizen in 2011, something he said he's very proud of, he has also been called a terrorist.

School committee members have been mum on the topic of Mr. Namin's leave, calling it a personnel matter, though they have requested an audit of the School Department's books and frozen the school budget.

Mrs. Gershman said the school committee also hired an interim business manager who will take a close look at the books.

Mr. Namin said there should not be any problems with the budget he claims was “in good shape” when he left on Dec. 11. He agreed there were questions about checks he had received for travel reimbursement, but he does not believe there is a problem with the reimbursements.

Mr. Namin said he was given $900 for travel expenses to Boston to work on the school renovation and addition project at David Prouty High School.

He was also issued a check for $2,000 to cover travel costs for a trip to California to receive an award and another $5,000 for travel and training because he was also working as the school's business manager.

All of the money came from grants and, he said, was handed over by the treasurer, who does not report directly to him, with the blessings of the school committee chairwoman, though she declined to discuss the matter with a reporter.

Much of the trouble, Mr. Namin said, stems from retaliation from former employees. He fired the school's business manager, who was not properly licensed to do that job, something the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education confirmed.

He said he also believes he has been betrayed by employees who have an allegiance to former School Superintendent Ralph Hicks.

Mr. Hicks, who is now superintendent at the Ashburnham-Westminster Regional School District, said he is doubtful that is the problem and that he has nothing to do with the issues in Spencer-East Brookfield.

Mr. Hicks pointed to Mr. Namin's records in other districts in which he has worked as an indication that the problems aren't new.

In 2005, Mr. Namin became superintendent at the Mahar Regional School District in Orange. It was the first time he had been a superintendent.

A 2007 report from the state inspector general shows that in that position, Mr. Namin and others working in the district as a new school project was being completed seemed to lack an understanding of the state's procurement laws.

The report indicates that district officials contracted with an unqualified vendor for a little more than $70,000 in technology that the inspector general ruled could not be paid.

The report recommended hiring a person to handle supplies and services contracts and recommended training in ethics and procurement laws.

Mr. Namin said he believes he did nothing wrong and that the company hired was on the state's bidders list, but not for the services it provided his district, which added to the confusion.

When he left in 2009, Ralph C. Mahar High School was listed as a bronze medal performer by U.S. News and World Report.

In 2011, as Mr. Namin was leaving the Westbrook, Maine, school department, his successor at Westbrook presented the budget Mr. Namin had developed, which showed a $3.7 million shortfall, according to an article in the Portland Press Herald.

He said that budget was due, in part, to decreased state funding and a citywide budget crisis.

This week, he said, he sent school committee members a letter telling them he plans to leave when his contract ends in June 2017, but that he will also be looking for work in a new district that is “a better match to my values.”

Mr. Namin said he's not surprised by the recent controversy because he chooses to work in districts where there are problems he believes he can fix. He said he has passed up job offers from districts in which things are running smoothly.

Making changes can be unpopular, he said, and he believes that because he has fired employees, given back money to the towns and made difficult cuts in other parts of the budget, some people are upset.

“I'm a storm chaser,” he said. “And sometimes, you get caught in the storm.”

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